Even after decades, there’s a lot ofdiscriminations based on gender still happening in our society. The gender wagegap is one of them. The gender wage gap is the average difference between wagereceived by men and women. The main causes of gender wage gap is educationattainment, occupational segregation, sexual discrimination, maternity leave andwomen tend to not negotiate for raises and promotions aggressively. Gender discriminationthat occurs in Indonesia most likely due to the cultural aspects that supportit. According to Wage Indicator (2016), thesocial assumption that men are the one whose earnings are the primary source ofsupport for their dependents, while women deal with housework and family, isexceptionally solid in Indonesian society. As a result, when women are working,their position is assumed to be merely that of an ‘extra’ provider. This patriarchy culture ofIndonesian society to support women not to work allegedly reflects thecontribution of Indonesian women in the labor market.
As evidenced by reportsfrom the International Labor Organization, only about 50 to 55 percent of womenin Indonesia participate in the labor force. The wage paid to men isbigger than the wage paid to women because he is expected to provide his wifeand children a decent life. While female laborers, even when married, are alsolegally still considered single. The World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index (2016)data shows Indonesia has a gender wage gap of 14.5%, meaning that on average Indonesianwomen earn 14.5% less than men.The gender wage gap is disadvantage forwomen, it suppressing their income and making it even difficult to balance workand family.
Serious attempts to understand the gender wage gap should notdriven to the blame to women for not earning more. Instead, these attemptsshould be to analyze in which sector our economy provides unequal opportunitiesfor women at every point of their education, training, and career choices. Although in 2007 to 2013 Indonesia wasrecorded by the World Bank as a country with a high minimum wage increase forlaborers, with average 13 percent increase per year in Southeast Asia, butthere is still a wage gap seen from a gender perspective.
Women workers’ wage incomeis always lower than men’s wages. If the wage of female laborers is only Rp.2.4million, the wages for male laborers can reach Rp.2.
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9 million. Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS)recorded the average wage paid to female laborers in February 2017 was lower by23 percent compared to the average wage male laborers earn. The head of BPS, Suhariyanto (2017), saidthat the female laborers’ wage is lower in almost all job sectors except electricity,gas and water sector. The highest wage gap between male and female laborersoccurred in the agricultural sector which reached 41 percent, where the averagewage paid to men reach Rp.1.
92 million while women’s wage is only Rp.1.13million. This wage gap is thought to be due todifferences in working time, education, and discrimination. In addition, withlow salaries, women workers also often receive violence from employers, bothdomestic and foreign workers. The International Labor Organization (ILO)regulates it in Convention No.100 on equal remuneration in 1951. ThisConvention No.
100 supports equal pay for men and women laborers for equal work.The non-discriminatory prohibitioncontained in the Indonesian Labour Law is based on Article 27 of the 1945Constitution regarding the status of citizens without discrimination. While thegender wage gap prohibition is regulated in the Government Regulation act no. 8of 1981 regarding the wage protection, which affirms that there is nodiscrimination in determining wages between male and female laborers for equalwork. Some of the special rights for femalelaborers contained in Law act no. 13 of 2003 :1. Article 81. Women who are on period andfeeling sick (and then tell it to the employer), permitted to not to go to workon the first and second day of menstruation.
2. Article 82 (1). Women deserve to get atime to rest for one and a half months before giving birth and one and a halfmonths after it (according to the calculation by obstetrician or midwife).3. Article 82 (2).
Women who suffer frommiscarriage are deserve to get a rest for one and a half months or depends onthe suggestion by obstetrician or midwife.4. Article 83. Women deserve to get a timeto breastfeed their children if it should be done during worktime.Despite the law stated above, there are stillemployers that
